Energy

Energy flow in ecology encompasses a broad range of empirical and theoretical topics. It is difficult to draw a distinct boundary around the topic because it overlaps with many other areas of ecology, biology, physical sciences, and global change. The scales addressed by the study of energy flows and transformations include the molecular scale, the metabolism and physiology of organisms and microorganisms, the organization of trophic webs and ecosystems, and the surface energy balance of landscapes, regions, and the globe. The flow of energy was a key organizing principle in the growth of ecosystem science in the mid- to late 20th century. ...

Development of various energy sources continues across North America and around the world, raising questions about social and economic consequences for the places and communities where these activities occur. Energy Impacts brings together important new research on site-level social, economic, and behavioral impacts from large-scale energy development. ...

Energy security is a multidisciplinary field which overlaps with engineering and energy systems analysis, earth sciences, economics, technology studies, political science, international relations, and security and military studies. Though discussions of energy security have been around for most of the 20th century, a systematic “energy security science” has emerged only recently and is still a young and dynamic field. The structure and the borders of the area are widely debated and contested. ...

Energy, in physics, is defined as the ability to do work, where work means moving or displacing something over a distance by applying force. Bicycle pedaling that translates muscle strength into the forward motion of the bicycle, flowing water that turns the shaft of a water wheel, and the electric force that moves electrons through a wire in an electric circuit are all examples of work. Energy can be transferred from one object to another. For example, energy is transferred from the person pedaling to the bicycle and from the flowing water to the wheel. In a gasoline-powered vehicle, the energy released from the explosive combustion of fuel in the engine is transferred to a drive shaft to turn the wheels, and cooking a meal involves transferring heat from a stove to the food. ...

The Inuit World is a robust and holistic reference source to contemporary Inuit life from the intimate world of the household to the global stage. Organized around the themes of physical worlds, moral, spiritual and intellectual worlds, intimate and everyday worlds, and social and political worlds, this book includes ethnographically rich contributions from a range of scholars, including Inuit and other Indigenous authors. ...

Most articles on energy and economics focus on aspects such as the price of petroleum, the cost of electric power, or the demand for domestic air conditioning or industrial heat. Those topics are about the factors driving producers to invest in different sources of supply, and the factors affecting demand. Instead, this article is about how energy acts as a crucial factor of production and as a driver of, or barrier to, economic growth. It also explains how it happens that conventional economic theory neglects the role of energy, and discusses the implications of that neglect in terms of explaining past economic developments and forecasting the future. This article presents the key thermodynamic-based concepts for studying the relationships between energy and the economy, and finds that upcoming energetic constraints mean the neo-classical illusion of a global, perpetual economic growth machine will fail, and most likely sometime soon. ...